Outside of Time
by TobyT
Summary: When Vlad decides to take the day off he discovers an opportunity he would have otherwise missed. Alternate timeline from TUE.
1. Chapter 1

**Have you ever heard of the Butterfly effect. Sure you have. A single small event can lead to things a lot greater. Vlad taking the day off to watch a few videos of Fentonworks is it takes to changes the lives of many  
**

Outside of Time

Chapter 1: Blast from the Future

Wisconson. 10 years into the future

An elderly Vlad walked over to a desk on the other side of his lab. On top of it lay a pair of Ghost Gauntlets, untouched since that tragic day. He looked at them with a sad smile recalling what Danny had just said just seconds ago.

_"Maybe that's all anyone needs, a second chance."_

He slipped on his pair of ghost ghost gauntlets and looked back at the boy.

"So your saying there's a medallion lodged within you, keeping you rooted in the time period?"

"Yes, and I can't reach it." said the young teen. "But I'm guessing if you could reach into me and rip out my humanity, which by the way sounds totally gross, you can get the medallion out too. Then I'll pop back to my present like Tucker and Sam did."

Vlad just raised his gloved hands feeling an powerful energy flowing through them.

"Or I could just destroy you now and prevent this future." he said coldly his eyes now bloodshot. "Didn't think of that, did you?"

He lunged at Danny who was too shocked to move. A horrible scream pierced the air as he sunk his gloved hand into the teen. Almost as soon as he had pushed the glove into Danny's chest he found what he was looking for. The Time Medallion, he promptly pulled it from Danny's chest and the screaming stopped as Danny disappeared. Returning to his own time period.

Vlad just held the medallion in front of him. A prize worth much more to him that taking Danny's life. With this he could unlock the secrets of time, a power much greater than anything he had ever seen. He set to work right away, taking the still glowing gloves off and putting the medallion on a nearby lab table.

* * *

The present. Wisconson.

Vlad Plasmius was standing in his lab watching some videos recorded by his many sources of surveillance equipment. A fight between Danny Phantom and a highly advanced robotic ghost was playing, the two were currently floating above the streets of Amity Park.

"Stop, analysis."

Several boxes appeared on the screen focusing on the time medaillion around the robots neck.

"File 076 12LM." another picture of the robot appeared on another screen beside the first one. "Stop, anaysis." more boxes appeared on the window once again around the time medallion.

"File 076 12LV. Stop, Analysis." This time the video had showed the medallion falling off the robots neck.

"File 076 12MC." The new video showed the robot disappearing along with Danny and his friends. The medallion sat in the middle of the road lying untouched and unnoticed by onlookers of the fight. The video continued in fast forward for several minutes until traffic resumed. A car drove over the top of the medallion sending it to the gutter still unseen by anyone.

"Very well." Plasmius said to himself with a smile. "It may still be there. I had better not waste any time." He turned away from the screens before turning himself intangible and flying through the ceiling of his secret lab.

* * *

Plasmius flew invisibly above the city of Amity Park. In the distance he saw the large building that was Fenton Works. Underneath him was a partially destroyed Nasty Burger damaged in an explosion Vlad had seen on his videos. Vlad flew for just a little longer before he found the place he was looking for. A couple of broken flag poles and a damaged street light were the only signs a fight had occured here just an hour ago. Vlad looked towards the street and quickly found what he was looking for, a small glowing medallion lying ignored in the gutter, he swooped down and grab it without a second thought. He simply smiled as he slipped the medallion over his neck. Nothing happened, but that didn't surprise him. He simply left it in place and said quietly to himself.

"And now to wait. If Danny and his friends come back I want to find out where they went."

He flew towards Fentonworks knowing Danny would return their eventually.

* * *

Vlad waited invisibly in Danny's room. He didn't have to wait long for the teen to return. He stood in the corner of the room and watched Danny fly through the floor to stand in the middle of the room.

"My old room," he said walking towards the dresser, "And my old face."

_"What's he saying?"_ Plasmius wondered. The door burst open and Jazz entered the room.

"Danny, we need to talk." she said with a nagging tone.

"And my old sister, Jazz." Danny said turning around. "What'd you want Jazz? I'm busy."

"Yeah, busy cheating." she said lifting the test answers she had found earlier. "Lancer was right, you did steal the answers. Don't you understand?"

"That I'll be destroying my future." Danny laughed and took the answers from Jazz. "You don't know the half of it."

_"Something is wrong here. Daniel is acting strangely." _Plasmius mulled over it for a few seconds.

Jazz's voice changed to a disappointed tone. "Danny, I know all of it, about everything. That your part ghost, that you were always doing the right thing with your powers, until now."

"You knew?" Danny said slightly shocked

_"She knows?"_ Plasmius almost said aloud.

"I know, and I've been covering for you with Mum and Dad because I'm proud of you and the good that you do." Jazz put her hands on her hip. "But not anymore."

Danny smiled "You always were smarter than I gave you credit for."

A large white ring appeared around his waist. It separated and moved up and down revealing as it went this Danny's true form. Jazz stepped back when she saw this.

"Your, your not Danny?! Thats why the boomerang wasn't homing in on your ectosignature. Your not Danny!"

"I was. But I grew out of it." Danny said calmly, rubbing his fingers together, "The Danny you know is floating helplessly in the ghost zone 10 years in the future."

_"What is going on here. The future? Is this Danny from the future?" _Plasmius looked rather shocked but no one could see it. He looked briefly at the medallion around his neck before looking back at the brother and sister.

"He'll escape. He'll beat you."

"How? Is the answer A: The Fenton Portal? Destroyed it. B: The Only Remaining Portal? The one my idiot cheesehead archenemy has. As soon as I find it thats going too."

_"My portal? Still exists in the future. Which means wherever this Danny has come from I must still be alive." _Plasmius was thinking fast considering how much information he was taking in.

"Cheesehead? Vlad Masters? He's your archenemy?"

"Is it C: You? No. You can't stop me from cheating on the C.A.T. and solidifying my future, so it much be D: None of the above." Danny shot an ectobeam at Jazz which harmlessly knocked her out. He then transformed back into his human half and opened the test answers.

"Well what'd you know, the answer the to first question is D."

Danny looked at his now unconcious sister and quickly decided what to do with her. He carried her across the hallway to her room and put her in her bed. Plasmius could only follow silently unsure of what to do next. When he was done Danny flew through the roof disappearing from sight. Plasmius decided not to follow him. Simply standing in the hallway taking a moment to get a grasp on what had just happened.

_"So that was Danny. From the future. Something must have happened to him. The Daniel I know would never attack his sister like that." _Plasmius decided to return to the room and he sat down on the end of the bed. _"If that was Danny from the future, then what happened to our Danny? More importantly, how can I take advantage of the situation?"_

Vlad smiled. The introduction of this new Danny could be very interesting indeed. Vlad pondered over it for the next few hours remaining hidden within Fenton Works until the other Danny returned later in the evening. This time Danny used the front door to enter, not wanting to draw any attention to himself. He grabbed some food from the empty kitchen and looked downstairs into the ghost lab to see his parents working on their newest invention. He didn't bother them and instead took his food upstairs to his room. When he entered he found a now visible Plasmius standing in front of the dresser.

"You." Danny said rather calmly. "What do you want this time."

"No need for charades dear boy. I know who you are." Plasmius said with a smile, "And I have a few questions for you."

Danny closed the door behind him before transforming into his ghost self.

"You've grown since I last saw you Daniel, how longs it been?"

"10 Years." Danny said with a cold smile. "But you already knew that didn't you."

"It was one of the things I overheard earlier." Plasmius said. "I would have found that hard to believe had I not seen the power of this medallion earlier today."

"Clockwork." Danny said carefully. "So he's been meddling here too."

"Clockwork?" Plasmius said with a smile. "Is he the one who made the these medallions?" Plasmius had also noticed the medallion around Danny's neck. Plasmius quickly drew his conclusion. "So I merely have to take that medallion from you and you'll leave this time period?"

"That is correct. If you are planning to take it from me then you should know that I am a lot stronger than the Danny you know so well."

"You would be very interesting to get to know Daniel. But unfortunately your too much of a threat. I must study this medallion to learn its secrets. And I can't have you running around here messing up my plans like your younger self always does."

"Sadly for you I must remain here to ensure my future. If you truly wish to fight me then we must do it where nothing will be changed."

"Very well Danny." Plasmius laughed before taking off through the ceiling.

Danny followed shortly afterwards and soon both of them were high in the sky above Fenton Works.

"Its been such a long time since I've had a chance to really test my strength" said Danny with a huge smile. "It really was a pity I could never test my powers against you. Until now that is."

"What do you mean?" Plasmius looked confused "What happened to me in the future?"

"Ha, I am you in the future. I absorbed your ghost half long ago."

"Absorbed my ghost half?!. How is that even possible." Plasmius was shocked and it was showing.

"I've never seen you so surprised. You used to be so calm, cool. But there are still things that surprise you." Danny laughed. "I have your powers and my own, there is no way you can beat me."

Plasmius collected himself. He was used to having the advantage when it came to emotions. The Danny he knew was an emotional teenager but no longer it seemed.

Danny flew at him firing off several ectobeams. Vlad dodged a few of them and blocked the others with an ectoshield created with the wave of the hand.

"You still fight like the Danny I know." Plasmius said smiling. "Although your beams are a little stronger. Do you have any tricks up your sleeves?"

Danny said nothing at flew at him again. This time Plasmius attacked back so all Danny could do was dodge. Soon they were right next to each other and Danny made an attempt to grab Plamius by the throat. Plasmius knocked away his hand before making another attack of his own, punching Danny in the face with a glowing fist. Danny was knocked back and before he could recover he was hit in the chest by a red ectobeam.

"Seems to me like your all talk." Plasmius smiled. "I was expecting more from you."

"I underestimated you. Perhaps you would like to see my newest power?"

"New power? What could you possibly have up hidden up your sleeve?" Plasmius had made the mistake of becoming over confident.

A high pitched wail filled the air, Plamius had no time to react as the powerful soundwave quickly approached and knocked him out of the sky. He almost lost conciousness as he fell but regained himself so he didn't crash into the ground. Instead he floated down softly and landed on a rooftop. He fell to his knees in pain and reverted to Vlad Masters to weak to maintain his ghost form.

_"What was that? That power?"_

But he didn't have the chance to think about it because Danny was now floating in front of him.

"You like it? I call it my ghostly wail." Danny smiled proudly. "Its a pity I can't finish you off now."

Vlad looked at him dazed and saw him fly towards the Fenton Works before falling unconcious.

* * *

**End of chapter 1.**

**This is the first fanfic I've written for the site. So please go on easy on me. If you have a few moments I would love reviews.**

**Thanks for reading so far : )**


	2. Chapter 2

Outside of Time

Chapter 2: Unseen Witness

Vlad awoke several hours later still on the rooftop. He stood up slowly and brushed himself off. He looked around quickly before transforming into his ghost half. It wouldn't be so bad if Plasmius was seen up here on whoevers roof this was. He looked at his watch as he slowly walked towards the edge. 23:15 it read.

_"What sort of power was that?" _Plasmius wondered to himself. _"I must not underestimate this future Danny anymore. He's much more of a threat than the teenage one." _Plasmius scratched his head and looked over the edge. _"Thinking of young Daniel. I do wonder if he has returned yet. Or if he ever will. There is no time for that now though. I must return home and rest. The new Danny will most likely wait until the C.A.T. to make his move. I'll keep my eye on him then."_

Plasmius took off from the rooftop and headed back to his castle. There he used his computers to quickly find that the C.A.T. was to be held the next day at Casper High and then he retired to his bed exausted from the battle.

* * *

Ghost Zone: Clockworks Castle.

Two small screens were showing two separate time periods. Two Observants were watching the screens. The first showed a teenaged Danny Phantom fighting his enemies in the future. The second showed the same teenager sitting in his room looking at a set of test answers.

"The evil Danny has used your time medallion to return to his past." said the first Observant

"He's going to use the answers to cheat on the test." said the second Observant.

"By being there he has already changed the past." said the first Observant.

"By changing the past he will change his future." said the second Observant.

"He has your time medallion." said the first Observant.

"He has your time medallion." said the second Observant.

"You've both said that twice now." Clockwork said

"Destroy him now before it's too late." said the first.

"And bring the boy back to his own time period." said the second.

"No. You are Observants. So observe." Clockwork said shifting into his older self. "Everything will be the way its supposed to be. Just watch a little bit longer."

Clockwork pressed the button on top of his staff and the screen behind him turned off.

"My role in this is almost over." Clockwork finished.

* * *

Vlad awoke the next morning early. He decided to review the footage of the previous day to see if he could discover more about the time travellers. He kept the medallion around his neck just in case. Over the course of the morning he discovered the identity of both of the ghosts who had attacked Danny and using the cameras in the Fenton's kitchen he caught a glimpse of a flash of light beside Boxed Lunch when she appeared. He made sure to keep copies of those particular videos.

After a brief lunch Plasmius once again headed to Amity Park. The C.A.T. wouldn't start until 3pm so this would give him plenty of time to silently watch the Danny from the future and find out if he was up to anything. Once inside Casper High Plasmius was quickly able to locate Danny and his friends in a classroom. Vlad noticed the boy acting just a little strangely but Danny's classmates hadn't yet noticed he wasn't the Danny they knew. Vlad floated quietly at the back of the room while the students prepared for test and eventually took it starting on time at 3pm. Vlad noticed Danny cheating, which wasn't a surprise and after just 10 minutes he finished the test and handed in his paper. Sam and Tucker watched with sad looks as the smiling Danny left the room. Vlad observed their teacher making a phone call as he left the room to follow the boy.

"Still following me?" Danny said to the empty hallway, slowly turning around.

"You are the sharp one dear boy." Plasmius said landing on the floor but remaining invisible "You never used to be this good at spotting me."

"I don't have time for you now Plasmius. I was hoping my display of power would keep you away until I was finished but it seems I was mistaken." Danny smiled but kept walking towards the front of the school.

"I have no intention of stopping you." Plasmius said to the surprise of Danny. "It seems it is no longer in my best interest to do so. I will allow you to do whatever it is you came here to do."

"Interesting." Danny said reaching the front door and pushing it open. "But if you had any idea what I'm planning, then you might change your mind."

"Why is that?" Plasmius asked.

"Because in just a couple of hours I am going to kill my family." Danny finished.

"Your what?" Plasmius said in shock. _"He's going to kill Maddie?"_

"Your surprised? This is a part of my past, I'm here to ensure it happens. I can't have you interfere."

Danny suddenly spun around and waved his hand at Vlad. A green glow surrounded the invisible ghost and froze him to the spot.

"I'll give you a front row seat." Danny waved his hand again and the invisible Plasmius floated into the air beside him trapped in the green glow.

"What is this? Where are you taking me?" Plasmius was surprised that he was unable to move at all.

"We're going to the Nasty Burger. I want you to witness this life changing event."

Danny turned himself invisible before turning into his ghost form and then taking off towards the Nasty Burger. Once there he sat the still bound Plasmius down beside the still intact Nasty Burger sign.

"You can wait here until I come back. I have a few things to take care of."

Danny left as soon as he had arrived at the Nasty Burger leaving Plasmius alone and unable to move next to the sign. He struggled to break himself free of the energy Danny had put around him but so far failed to do anything more than blink and speak. He eventually gave up his attempts and decided to wait for the energy to dissipate, but that could be a while.

* * *

At 5pm Danny returned, along with his parents in the Fenton RV. Mr Lancer had showed up several minutes before and had been waiting for them. Plasmius could only watch from where he was. Too far away to hear what was being said but close enough to see Danny look over at him briefly. After just a few seconds of talking Plasmius watched Sam and Tucker run towards the group yelling about an explosion. He also watched as Jazz ran towards them from down the street in the Fenton Peeler, a large metal suit. She shot a beam of ghost energy at Danny who was forced to change back into his ghost form.

Plasmius was surprised that Jazz had gained an advantage over the Danny from the future but that quickly changed and Danny tied the entire group up inside the Nasty Burger simply by waving his hand and shooting off a few ectobeams. With this he simply floated there and laughed, his job done. He looked at where Plasmius was still invisible and bound and smiled.

"Maddie." Plasmius said sadly. He had finally realized how Danny was planning to kill them.

Danny's victory was short lived however as the teenage Danny appeared in a flash of light above them and flew towards the surprised older Danny. He landed a solid punch which knocked back the older Danny. Plasmius watched the older Danny hit a nearby building and then fly right back into the action to grab the younger Danny. The talked a little bit before the older Danny sent the younger one flying out of sight. He flew after him leaving everyone tied up in the Nasty Burger and Plasmius outside near the sign.

Strangely for just a little bit everything was terribly still. Plasmius tried to escape again and found that he could move a little now. The power restraining him was weakening, he could move his arms a little but not enough to do anything useful. The silence was broken by a large explosion on the other side of the Nasty Burger and everyone tried to see what had caused it. It was then that Vlad heard a sound he had heard last night. The ghostly wail. It lasted for a few seconds before everything went still again. Plasmius still tried to free himself but could still only move his arms. He looked over at everyone bound inside the Nasty Burger, he could see Maddie trying a panel on the side of Jazz's Fenton Peeler with no luck. Everyone else was looking terrified and wriggling to get themselves free. Another ghostly wail broke the silence but didn't last long before everything was still again.

_"Who will win? The Danny I know always seems to win in the end but is that meaningless if he fights himself?" _Plasmius had only a few more seconds before he saw the teenage Danny running down the road in his human form.

_"Has he won?" _Plasmius wondered as he watched Danny running down the street.

"Noooo." Danny yelled falling over with a look of dispair on his face.

_"No?"_ Plamius though,_ "What does he mean?" _His thoughts were interupted by a large explosion that engulfed the Nasty Burger. It sent him flying through a large cloud of dust and across the street breaking the binding ectoplasm when he landed. He stood up quickly only to notice that everything around him had stopped moving and had gone silent, the dust cloud had stopped moving and the explosion glowed brightly but unmoving. A strange sight indeed. He was just about to fly into the sky when he heard a voice from within the dust cloud.

"Clockwork!?" it was Danny.

Plasmius couldn't see Danny but he could see the glowing figures of everyone who had been caught in the explosion, floating in a glowing green light.

"You saved them!?" said Danny excited and relieved. "I don't understand."

Vlad then heard a strange older voice he had not heard before. He couldn't see who it was coming from but knew it was talking to Danny.

"The Observants look at time like they're watching a parade. One thing after another passing by in sequence right in front of them." Clockwork said to Danny while floating closer to the Nasty Burger and out of the dust cloud. Plasmius could now see them from the street and quickly turned invisible so he wouldn't be seen.

"I see the parade from above. All the twists and turns it might, or might not, take. Clockwork finished.

"You knew all of this was going to happen, all of it." Danny said to Clockwork and floated over to his friends and family. "Even this part."

"Everything is the way its supposed to be." Clockwork replied. "And here we are with you, a 14 year old child, risking everything to save the people you care about."

Plasmius watched as Danny turned towards the old man in the purple cloak and smiled. The old man simply replied by saying two words.

"Time in." he pressed the button on top of his staff and he and Danny disappeared along with the explosion.

Plasmius looked around in shock, everything was back to normal as if nothing had ever happened. The sun was higher in the sky and the Nasty Burger was fully repaired, the explosion forgotten.

"What is this?" Plasmius said loudly to himself. "What just happened?"

It was now that everything clicked. He flew inside the Nasty Burger unconcerned by the screams of terror of its few patrons. He landed at the front counter and approached the young lady behind the counter.

"Do you have the correct time?" he asked almost politely.

This broke her trance as she had been staring since he flew in the front door.

"3:05" was all she could say. She looked at him nervously.

With that he turned invisible and flew through the ceiling. He looked at his own watch, it read 5:05PM. He smiled and put a hand around the medallion he still had around his neck. Plasmius has quickly pieced it all together. The medallion had protected him from Clockwork's time control powers.

_"So now what?"_ Plasmius wondered to himself. _"This makes me one of just a handful of people who knows about the alternate timeline. More importantly, nobody knows I know, not even Clockwork, the ghost who can control time. I need some time to think this over, I'll go back to the castle for now."_

Plasmius quickly headed out of town towards his castle. He had a lot of work to do.

* * *

Fentonworks: Later that evening

Danny lay on his bed with Jazz sitting at his desk. He had just finished filling her in on all the details about his ghost powers and the adventures he and his friends had had. Jazz had asked a lot of questions and he found it nice to talk to someone new about the matter.

"So what happened to you from the future?" Jazz asked.

"I captured him in the Thermos before the explosion." Danny said. "But when we went back in time the thermos came back here." Danny lifted a Fenton Thermos and took the lid off, it was empty.

"So the future version of you was erased from time when the events that created him didn't happen." Jazz said.

"Yeah, something like that." Danny said shrugging. "This time stuff confuses me. You'll have to ask Clockwork."

"I wonder if we'll ever see him again." Jazz said.

"Who knows." Danny replied. "For now I need some sleep.

"Ok." Jazz said standing up. "Goodnight. Danny Phantom." she smiled. "I've always wanted to say." she left the room and closed the door behind her. Leaving Danny to get some well deserved rest.

* * *

**Well there we go. Hope you are enjoying it so far. Now that its set up I can move away from the canon story a bit more now..... although I'll make sure to mention a few events that happened... not everything can change all at once. Christmas is coming up, and then secret weapons. But I might skip over those a bit**


	3. Chapter 3

Outside of Time

Chapter 3: A Therrmos for Plasmius

Vlad had spent the last several weeks working on his brand new project. The time medallion. With his expensive and ghost powered technology he had been able to make a single replica of the device without even opening up the original. This new device however looked slightly different to the original. Of course this meant the only visible difference was in the lettering on the front. The replica had VP written instead of the old CW. He slipped the original medallion around his neck and locked the new replica inside a highly secure ghost proof safe.

He had finally come up with a plan of action. Using his recently aquired exoskeleton made by Jack he would make it even more powerful by replacing the power source. He could then use this suit to make his ghost form even more powerful. Hopefully powerful enough to take on Clockwork. With the time medallion and the improved suit there was no way he could lose. Vlad only needed a few more parts and the exoskeleton would be complete. He knew just the ghost to do this for him,

Vlad left his secret lab with a smile on his face. He walked to his kitchen and looked out of a large window. It was snowing. He poured himself a cup of expensive coffee before sitting down in his favorite chair. He picked up a copy of the days newspaper and spent the next hour reading it. He appeared to be a normal, but rich, man going about his daily routine as usual.

Fentonworks however was the exact opposite. As it was mid December Danny was bracing himself for yet another terrible Christmas. It hadn't started yet but as soon as the Christmas tree was put up the fighting between his parents would being. For now they were busy tinkering in the lab working on some new project.

Danny had noticed a decrease in the number of ghost attacks over the last few weeks. He hadn't caught a single ghost during the last week. Perhaps they were starting to get the message? Or too busy Christmas shopping.

"Do ghosts even go Christmas shopping?" Danny muttered to himself.

"Thats random dude? You thinking aloud again?" Tucker said hearing what Danny said.

"Yeah, sorry Tuck. I was just thinking about the ghosts."

Danny and Tucker were sitting in the kitchen of Fentonworks. It was a Saturday so there was no school. But that didn't stop Mr Lancer from giving them homework. Jazz had suggested Danny ask Tucker over to help him study so here they were.

"Don't worry Danny, the ghosts aren't planning some large scale attack. Are they."

"I don't know. But I am really enjoying the peace a--" Danny was cut off by a large bang in the lab.

"Ghost!" yelled his father.

"That'll teach us not to talk about a lack of ghosts." Danny said standing up quickly. "I'm going ghost!"

Tucker always loved watching Danny turn into his ghost form and just stared as the rings of light surrounded Danny. As soon as the lights disappeared so did Danny.

"I'll be back in a moment Tuck, if they come up here... I.... I went to the bedroom to grab some notes." and with that Tucker was left alone.

Unable to ignore the yell Tucker decided to check out what had happened in the lab. He waited a few seconds and then followed the invisible Danny to the lab. When he got there he got quite a shock. Jack was holding a thermos and was pointing it at the ghost that was in floating in the middle of the room. The box ghost. With a bit of luck Jack actually managed to catch the ghost without causing any damage.

"Wow Jack." said Maddie. "You caught that evil ghost."

Jack was equally shocked "Do I rock or what!" he said setting the therrmos down on the counter beside him. "Its a real pity that other one got away. It just moved so quickly, one moment it was here and the next it was gone."

"Its a real shame." said Maddie. "But this ghost will be fun to dissect."

"Molecule by molecule?" Jack said with a pleading voice.

"Yes honey, molecule by molecle." Maddie said with a cheerful tone.

"Yes, I'll get the Spector Scalpel" Jack said as he ran across the lab.

"Mom?" Danny said poking his head out from the stairs leading down to the lab. He had changed back to his human form seeing the trouble had passed.

"Yes sweetie."

"Would it be a goodd idea to close the portal?"

"Good idea sweetie." Maddie said smiling. "Jack, be a dear and close the portal before any more ghosts come through."

Jack stopped fishing through a messy set of drawers and walked over to the portal. He pushed a his thumb to a scanner and the portal closed. No more ghosts would be coming through.

"Danny, you and your friend should go back upstairs." Maddie said looking at Danny and Tucker who were both now standing at the bottom of the stairs. "We need to quarintine the lab so we can examine the ghost." Maddie smiled. "If you really want to stay though you can wear one of the spare jumpsuits. Jack had one made for you."

"No, that ok Mom." answered Danny quickly. He had often wondered why his father had replaced his missing white jumpsuit with an oversized orange one. Perhaps it was a lesson to teach Danny not to lose things. Of course that white jumpsuit wasn't actually lost....

Danny and Tucker both headed back upstairs before Maddie said anything to get Jack's attention. Once upstairs they both sat down at the table again.

"Mind filling me in?" Tucker said. "Did they catch a ghost we know?"

"The box ghost." Danny said dryly

"Since when can your folks catch ghosts?"

"I don't know. Although catching the Box ghost isn't exactly hard."

"I know. I've lost count of how many times I've caught him."

"What bothers me is the fact Skulker was also there. I barely caught a glimpse of him but I think he stole a therrmos."

"Skulker?" Tucker looked surprised. "Was he working with the Box Ghost? And what does he need a therrmos for?"

"Who knows. Maybe he's planning to catch some ghosts?"

"Funny." Tucker said rolling his eyes.

The two continued discussing it but were eventually distracted by a Christmas arguement between Danny's parents.

* * *

Wisconson. Several hours later

Once again Vlad Plasmius was busy in his secret lab however this time he had a visitor. Skulker entered through the Ghost Portal located in Vlad's basement. Almost identical to the Portal in the Fenton's lab simply because it was built using the same designs, the stolen ones. Skulker stood in front of the portal facing Plasmius.

"I keep my end of the deal." Skulker said. "If you want this you'll need to hold up your end." Skulker was now holding the therrmos in front of him.

"Nice work." Plasmius smiled. "Here, this is a newer model than that terrible PDA you currently have." Plasmius threw the PDA across the room and Skulker caught it. He quickly ripped off Tucker's old PDA and replaced it with the new one.

"Yes, I feel stronger already." Skulker said pleased.

"Good. There is more where that came from. But there are a few things I want you to retrieve for me first." Plasmius smiled and looked at the Exoskeleton in the corner of the room.


End file.
